During the fifth century BCE, the architecture
of ancient Greece achieved an unprecedented level of accomplishment
in the buildings on the Acropolis in Athens. The
Parthenon, dedicated to the goddess Athena, was one of the
most famous buildings in the ancient world and today remains
an essential subject for the study of Classical Greek art
and architecture. Built during the administration
of Pericles following the Athenian's victory over the Persians,
the temple was the principal site of worship and civic ceremony
expressed in the Panathenaic Procession. The Parthenon
is probably the most carefully surveyed and measured building
surviving from the ancient world providing a substantial
base of data for modern architectural historians. Structurally,
the building depends on the post-and-lintel method of construction. The
base measures some 225 feet in length and 100 feet in width,
and the columns, designed in the Doric Order, reach a height
of 34 feet. The names of the architects, Iktinos
and Kallikrates, have been preserved, and the rich sculptural
decoration was supervised by Phidias. The sculptural
program included a frieze narrating the Panathenaic Procession,
metopes depicting the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs,
and, in the pediments, the Contest Between Athena and Poseidon
(west) and the Birth of Athena (east).
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The architecture
of Classical Greece became a cornerstone of later developments
in the history of architecture, from the Roman Empire through
the twentieth century. As
an object of both imitation and inspiration, the Parthenon
epitomizes the ideals of its creators, and a model for modern
students and scholars.  |
